Mad Mexicans

[Peter Ward]

As an EV owner I was aghast at the Victorian Government’s decision to tax EV users when it would seem the rest of the world is doing exactly the opposite.

To be blunt, the reasons for this tax simply are bald faced lies, sheer duplicity and stupidity.

A research paper sponsored by the Federal Parliament itself made it very clear that the primary reason for the indexed fuel excise tax was to purely to raise federal revenue.

They gave secondary reasons as to “recover from road users the costs they impose on society, such as wear and tear on pavements and air pollution” (WTF!)
and goes on to say heavy trucks were actually responsible for most road damage, which state governments already recover via registration charges.

Taxing EV and hybrid users (yes, poor buggers will pay excise and a road tax) is nothing more than a fine for smoking while sticking their heads in the sand about an environmental bushfire that is rapidly approaching.

I have written to my local NSW sate MP. While her response was not encouraging, at least NSW MP’s haven’t been quite so rabid. If you care about our environment please do the same.

Nothing gets a Pollie more motivated that the prospect of losing their seat.

[xelasnave]

Peter when you send a letter to your MP you send the same letter to every other MP you can think of...the other MPs forward the letter on to your MP ..so its nice to think of the annoyance that must cause to your MP receiving your letter multiple times forwarded by the other MPs.
Your next letter.. advise you will be holding multiple rallies and would she like to attend.
Alex

[Imme (Jon)]

Originally Posted by Peter Ward

As an EV owner I was aghast at the Victorian Government’s decision to tax EV users when it would seem the rest of the world is doing exactly the opposite.

To be blunt, the reasons for this tax simply are bald faced lies, sheer duplicity and stupidity.

A research paper sponsored by the Federal Parliament itself made it very clear that the primary reason for the indexed fuel excise tax was to purely to raise federal revenue.

They gave secondary reasons as to “recover from road users the costs they impose on society, such as wear and tear on pavements and air pollution” (WTF!)
and goes on to say heavy trucks were actually responsible for most road damage, which state governments already recover via registration charges.

Taxing EV and hybrid users (yes, poor buggers will pay excise and a road tax) is nothing more than a fine for smoking while sticking their heads in the sand about an environmental bushfire that is rapidly approaching.

I have written to my local NSW sate MP. While her response was not encouraging, at least NSW MP’s haven’t been quite so rabid. If you care about our environment please do the same.

Nothing gets a Pollie more motivated that the prospect of losing their seat.

The issue is that it's revenue and it is being spent to provide us with the life we're accustomed to here in Australia.
By all means, dont charge a tax to EV drivers to encourage more to adopt the tech.........however the money lost on the fuel tax to these EV's will just need to be grabbed some other way via a tax increase or a new tax on something else.

I think we're very lucky to live in a country that provides a very good standard of living......but that standard isn't free.
Sure, cut taxes across the board, it'd be great.........but if that does happen you can expect a much worse standard of living and more out of pocket expenses.

[jahnpahwa (JP)]

Originally Posted by Imme

The issue is that it's revenue and it is being spent to provide us with the life we're accustomed to here in Australia.
By all means, dont charge a tax to EV drivers to encourage more to adopt the tech.........however the money lost on the fuel tax to these EV's will just need to be grabbed some other way via a tax increase or a new tax on something else.

I think we're very lucky to live in a country that provides a very good standard of living......but that standard isn't free.
Sure, cut taxes across the board, it'd be great.........but if that does happen you can expect a much worse standard of living and more out of pocket expenses.

That's it

[drylander (Peter)]

I think all road users including push bikes should pay a fee to use the road.
You can't have your cake and eat it too. Please remember all moneys now being issued to all and sundry via covid payments are borrowed moneys and sooner or later will cost us big time. Using hundred years worth of data does not climate change make. Like astronomy shows the earth works on aeons not years and in the future they will come up with more scare tactics to get your money. Enjoy your EV but ignore the children dying to get your power cells raw materials not to mention petroleum products for the fibreglass and plastic components of it. The cost to the environment to be green wind, solar and batteries, is enormous.
Pete

[Peter Ward]

Originally Posted by drylander

I think all road users including push bikes should pay a fee to use the road.............The cost to the environment to be green wind, solar and batteries, is enormous.
Pete

Did you forget to mention the earth was flat too?

The question I find myself asking is: are you pulling my chain or actually believe that bilge?

So taking it one a time then, Pete (aka drylander), we should I believe a comment by you, that 100 years of climate science is in doubt, despite these organizations
https://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/ (including no nothing’s like NASA, the NOAA and CSIRO) saying otherwise.

Children dying to make batteries for EV’s??

You fail to mention your phone battery…in fact much of today’s tech relies on the cobalt required for lithium cell production….
…..but getting back to EV’s.
Tesla only source their cobalt from, Glencore who are on the record as saying:

"We offer our condolences and sympathy to the families and the children injured or killed as a result of artisanal mining activities.
We do not tolerate any form of child, forced, or compulsory labour in our supply chain.
We support and respect human rights in a manner consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Glencore does not purchase, process or trade any artisanally mined cobalt or copper”

On the subject of mining deaths, the coal mining industry kills over 5000 miners every year, particularly in China.
I guess that’s OK as the official figures have been rather scarce since 2008, and they don’t officially mention kiddies in the toll, so clearly there can't be any.

Getting back to planet earth and reality again, the fuel excise tax goes to federal general revenue. There is no compulsion for it to be spent on roads, in fact, much of it isn’t.

This bizarre state-levied EV user tax is a grubby cash grab and even more of a disincentive for those of us who might care about the environment to buy an already expensive non-CO2-emitting vehicle.

Wind, solar etc. costing the environment? Seeing a giant wind turbine turning lazily in the southern highlands really doesn’t phase me.

Particularly when I could have a cosy picnic with the grandkids at this lovely countryside location, courtesy the fossil fuel industry (see attached: Hazelwood open cut coal fire)

[Nikolas (Nik)]

This is getting political guys

[drylander (Peter)]

Yes I'm sorry I mentioned it. Its the holier than thou attitude that irks me. I'm sure Peter contributed to the pollution while working as we all did. As for Mobile phone batteries not my problem either because as a retiree I have no need for them and rely on a fixed phone if needed. The windmills need steel to be made using coke, coal based, and the blades are non reusable. I now will leave this discussion as it is one that is too hard to stop once started. My apologies to the moderators.
Peter

[RB (Andrew)]

And I think we'll leave it there.
This type of discussion inevitably almost always leads to this outcome, hence why it's part of the TOS, not to mention the reported posts we've received by other members.

RB